I years of thinking about it, I bought an airbrush system last week. I've never airbrushed before and everything I've seen says to take it slow and plastic before using it on a model, but I'm too impatient for that.
I started with the Bones Rats.
Then moved to the Bones Deep Ones
Then experimented with shading using the Bones Spawn of Shugniggurath.
Then went big with the Bones Mashaaf.
Its actually harder to learn than I expected. Luckily I have lots of Bones to practice on.

I had the opportunity to play some Dragon Rampant last weekend at Huzzah, a convention in Portland, Maine. I decided that it was time to get these figures off the painting sticks and into play. DR calls for 6 figure units for war beats and cavalry, but these rats are small enough that I decided that 6 bases was a nice unit of measure. The two large swarms are single piece castings (01-045 from Iron Wind Metals), and the outrider bases are the DF-106s, originally scultped by Julie Guthrie.
This was a speed painting exercise; total brush time was just under an hour, and they were, as you can tell, mostly dry brushed.

Continuing the creature feature, here are the great big Barrow Rats:
Not quite undead but thoroughly nasty anyhow.
These will see use as wardogs in Frostgrave.
77198: Barrow Rats
Reaper Bones KS2, base set
Sculpted by Julie Guthrie
Bonesium PVC
30mm bases

Got a bit of the horde done, I tried for a pattern on one rat, grey and black. I also painted one a kind of tawny colour, which was in honour of my awesomely sweet rat of some 20 years ago, Whiskers. He used to sit on my shoulder and watch me at the computer or whatever I was doing. I really miss that little guy, such a shame rats just don't have the life span of cats :( although I guess that'd make the wild kind a bit more dangerous overall. Anyway!
The middle guy here is Whiskers ^^

I was inspired to paint this model on top of this base, pure due to her triumphant pose and her size. Not entirely happy with the face (my Bones version was a little lumpy) and my x-acto knife job on her boots, but she was a lot of fun anyway!

Painted back in January, for table top use.
Unfortunately I need new lights and my camera is MIA so crappy pictures with the desk lamp and phone it is....../grumbles
CC always welcome and yes the "Boss" rat is the one with the skull. 1st level adventurers beware!

Hello all! I've been wanting to paint these Bones Rats ever since I saw the reference picture for them like a year ago. The other day I finally sat down and did it! (All in one sitting to boot!) (Also pictured: 77054: Galladon, Male Wizard and 77049: Arthrand Nightblade, Elf Ranger, of whom I may do their own topic, as their my first mini's of 2016, and I'm quite happy with them! BUT I had more fun playing with the Rats!!) Since I did it all in one night, there was no point in a WIP topic, so if you wanted to see the WIP, click on the Spoiler:
And on to the finished rats!
We have some Albino rats, some black rats, some plain brown ones, and even some infected rats! Much of the basic style goes once again to the reference image from the Reaper store page.
I feel they turned out pretty well!
Normally for my tabletop playable miniatures, I'll finish them in a gloss varnish, then go over that with a matte varnish, to give them the best blend of protection and finished style. In this instance however, I opted to just go with a single coat of the matte (brushed on via Liquitex Matte). I know, not as protective, but it should do the trick. Plus even the first coat on 12 rats was surprisingly tricky. I'm glad I'm not a Warhammer player, I do not envy having to paint whole armies!
Anyway, time for some fun!
And thats the rats!
Thoughts, comments?

I've started painting minis again, since this winter. I used to do some in my twentys but did not take the hobby seriously as i do now. For the last few months i've been furiously looking for my old models without success, until today! They are ral partha pewter models from the 1990's. I did not remember i had the rats , the neanderthal and the rhino, it was quite a surprise when i found them. The paint is chipped but i will remove it & redo'em.
The wizards and the storm giant were done without primer, had no idea i should do that back then. All the models were done without the use of a magnefying glass, wich i do now. It's interesting seeing one's past work from 20 years ago. I wonder if i should repaint my very first ones or keep'em as is?
This is a trip!

I think I spent a total of an hour on these tonight to finish enough minis this month for the Resolutionary Painting Challenge. They are glossy from the glazing medium which I will take care of when I get around to sealing them.

Continuing my March resolutionary challenge, I am doing something about squads, teams or units. As in squads I have started (i.e. done a test piece) but not completed. I seem to have rather a lot of them cluttering up the shelving.
As per the resolutionary painting challenge guidelines, I will post them here, and link in my post in the challenge thread.
This week has seen little time for hobby, so I â€œcheatedâ€ by doing groups that were extra super fast to finish.
First up are two sets of 77016: Rats (6):
12 of them to be precise. These are cute little critters. Until you notice that they are the size of rather large dogsâ€¦and they are many, A shotgun only kills one at a time!
For some reason, I undercoated 9 if them white, and 3 black. I cannot for the life of me remember why I did this.
Based on Mantic 20mm bases.

For my second attempt at painting minis I thought I'd try something easier...and I love rats. So here are my Bones Dire Rats - one has escaped from some mad wizard's lab I think...
The fur came out ok, but I maybe need to cut back on the coffee or not watch Monty Python while painting - the tails and ears and paws came out so messy, even with my hands braced. When I tried to clean up the stone parts, the pink parts got all messed up. Argh!

First painting:
Cut rats from sprue, washed figures to get mold release off, dried, glued to bases, and primed with Army Painter Uniform Grey:
2013-07-15 - Primed Figures - Rats and Skeletons - 0001.jpg
Added basing material and washed it with black wash, painted a dark base coat of walnut brown to the shield and spear, and muddy brown to the skeleton to provide pre-shading. I plan to follow up with lightly brushed mid-tones, and a quick dry brush to highlight. Each example of skeleton and rat will be done differently to get ideas of what approach I like.
2013-07-15 - Skeletal Spearmen (77001) - 0001.jpg
I am also keeping a painting journal in MS OneNote, and am will get a pad of some kind to dab examples of mixed colors.
So far, the only brushes used have been a Citadel base coat brush, which can't hold a point to save it's life, and a cheap craft brush for the wash. I used a metal modeling tool for the PVA glue, and Testors Superglue with the needle applicator to glue the broccoli bases to the round bases.
Oh... and my painting station: